The best travel apps for a smart, stress-free holiday

Bonsai tree rides helium balloon to edge of space

Gallery: Bonsai tree rides helium balloon to edge of space

+5

+4

+3

A bonsai tree and a bouquet of flowers have been sent up into the stratosphere aboard high-altitude balloons. For art. "Flower artist" Makoto Azuma teamed up with space engineer John Powell of JP Aerospace to send the plants to an altitude of 30,000 metres as part of a stunt called Exobiotanica. They were affixed to stabilising rigs with cameras attached to them so that their lofty journey could be documented in high definition.

The stunt was inspired by the fact that plants are usually rooted to the soil under the command of gravity. Azuma, who has always been fascinated by space, wanted to liberate them, and allow them to head towards space where they could "see" the curvature of the Earth.

Advertisement

Azuma usually works from a botanical laboratory based in Tokyo, but he headed to the Nevada desert in order to prepare for the stunt. He selected a fifty-year-old pine bonsai tree and a bouquet made up of 30 different flower species including lilies, hydrangeas, irises and orchids to embark on this unusual mission.

They were attached to metal frames with GoPro video cameras which were then affixed to large helium balloons. These travelled into the sky for almost two hours before falling back to the ground. The plants were never recovered.

Advertisement

These plants follow in the footsteps of other inanimate objects that have been sent into the stratosphere. JP Aerospace actually helped Toshiba send an ultra-lightweight chair up to 30,000 metres for a stunt to promote the company's HD televisions back in 2009. More recently we've seen companies that make sex toys take their wares to great heights, presumably to join the 20 mile high club. Adult entertainment company CNV.com attached a vibrator to a weather balloon back in October 2011, a year before Felix Baumgartner skydived from a similar height for a Red Bull stunt. 2013 was a big year for stratospheric adult-themed PR stunts, with Efukt.com sending a large black dildo and CNV sending Missy the inflatable sex doll to the edge of space. Sadly Missy exploded at 31,000 metres and started to free fall to a sandy grave. Video footage showed that her left arm was torn off by the crosswind before she suffered severe damage to her right leg. Her right arm detached as well and she was last seen at around 27,000 metres, spiraling out of control.